Tom Hanks: What it's really like to promote a movie

We all know how it goes from this side. Stars talk to magazines, newspapers, radio and TV shows around the world in a non-stop blitz to promote their new films. Good Morning America one day, Letterman's Late Show the next. A photocall in Madrid is followed by a crazy TV show gig in Germany.

Just today, Jennifer Aniston met with the press in Manhattan to talk about her raunchy role in her new film, Horrible Bosses. You can read more on that here.

But Tom Hanks, in a delightful, behind-the-scenes tale in Entertainment Weekly,is detailing what it's like to promote a movie from a star's point of view.

Hanks, promoting Larry Crowne, says his itinerary called for 13 cities in 30 days. "This sort of Celebrity Mule Train is familiar in every branch of showbiz: a grueling combination of political campaign, global race, exotic vacation, and vision quest marked by exhaustion, jet lag, and introductions to far more people than your brain can recall," he writes.

He goes on to recount what he has learned in 25 years of being faced with the same questions for 30 times a day and living in hotel rooms until you feel like "the ceiling appears to be creeping down on you..."

Among his tips: Don't watch TV, do read books and get out of the car and be a tourist now and then.

See photos of: Tom Hanks

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